Med Culture is a Technical Assistance Unit funded by the European Union for the promotion of culture as vector of Human, Social and Economic Development in South Mediterranean countries. READ MORE ABOUT EU COOPERATION

SHIFT, SHAPE AND SHARE & REMODEL YOUR CULTURAL & ARTISTIC WORK

The training engages cultural operators and activists working in related fields –human rights, gender, etc.- to become professional trainers of trainers, leaders and advocators for culture. The aim is to increase the pool of professional trainers in the region and enhance their skills through acquiring new methodologies and tools.

We all know that learning is a fundamental value. We also know that the best training experiences are enjoyable and significant in some way and that training is a field and a practice that is constantly evolving and we need to look after our own development too.

As professionals involved in cultural work (and other related fields), we have been implementing projects that have left their mark on our communities – some more significantly than others. Some projects we have implemented included a learning component.

The two workshops are about your professional development, about empowering you to rethink your work and remodel your projects in order, on the one hand, to be better able to address the many challenges that your communities are facing on a daily basis, and on the other, to integrate the learning component more effectively. The workshops will strive to unlock your potential and reshape your production and promotion of cultural and artistic projects, to play an essential role in the building of strong societies.

The first workshop is a five day programme about shifting our thinking and expectations; shaping fun and effective learning experiences; and sharing the best practice in an inspiring and safe space, the better to support cultural advocacy, cultural resilience, education, policy and management in the Southern Mediterranean region.

The second workshop is also a five day programme that explores models of resilience in cultural and artistic work within the context of the Arab region – in programming, resourcing, campaigning, use of social media and approach to audiences. It will underline resilience as emergency work that deals with conflict, is closely linked to its context, adopts a critical approach, involves risk taking, learning by doing, and succeeding!

The two programmes are an important step towards creating a community of practice for the future, comprising cultural operators, managers, academics and trainers, together with those working in related fields such as human rights, sustainable development and public policy making.

WHAT

Both workshops will guarantee a hands-on and interactive programme.

The first workshop will explore:

The principles and practices of adult learning, starting with an exploration of how you learn best

Looking learning within a project: The value of a project oriented approach and taking responsibility for one’s own learning

Harnessing the power of a group: group learning, collective negotiating, facilitating and coaching in cultural projects

Designing spaces for facilitation, within a team, for debates or with communities

Reflective practice and modelling back: building on “appreciative inquiry”, starting from your own experiences and elaborating new tools and methodologies

You will have the opportunity to build, strengthen and revisit your own competencies in all these areas of activity. The result should be new perspectives, refreshed skills, enhanced knowledge and a broader range of approaches to try in your training projects, teaching and advocacy when you return to work.

The second workshop will focus on cultural resilience and explore:

The concept and meaning of resilience at local level based on practice, case studies form the Arab region

Resilience as a political/social issue following a critical approach

Learning as a feature of resilience: learning with, for and about resilience

Capacity development as a tool for resilience

Resilience, social media, new technologies and new spaces

Resilience, diversity and the challenge of new definitions of identities

Resilience, Renewal and Creativity

Leadership, partnership building for the development of projects, collaborative work, negotiation

Giving and receiving feedback, coaching

Models for programming and how to integrate them in project management

Monitoring and evaluating

HOW

We want to put you (and your proposed project ideas) at the centre of these two encounters. We will work with a range of methodologies and this, most importantly, includes learning from each other, so expect lots of pair, small and large group work. Sometimes we’ll have parallel sessions on the same or different topics. Sharing your own knowledge and expertise and reflecting in and on experiences will be vital and there will be time for this.

We - as the training team - will be open and flexible about our own processes and the ways in which we revise and adapt things, with you, as we go along. Sometimes we’ll work solo with you and at others we’ll co-train. We’ll all have opportunities to exchange; we’ll eat together; we’ll talk; and we’ll laugh. It’s all part of the training.

We want our time together to be a genuinely enjoyable collaborative learning experience for all of us: none of us should be in the same place at the end as we were at the beginning.

[1] See Hicham Houfaida, 2017; Saskia Sassen refers to the phenomena of expulsion that is increasing in contemporary societies, 2014

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